Explain RO

Now let’s talk about the second part of total water management. The water conditioner takes care of the water that goes on you. The water that you bathe in, wash your clothes and dishes in and flush your toilets with. Most people don’t need this water to be purified, they just don’t want it to stain or calcify up everything. This accounts for about 99% of the water a family uses.

The reverse osmosis drinking system accounts for only about 1% of the water used. But some people would agree that it is the most important part. This is the water that goes in you; the water you drink,cook with, make coffee, tea, soup, ice with. If you had an unlimited supply of this water, what might you use it for?

I want to give you a brief overview of how these systems work. They all, regardless of the type, use the same basic process. The reverse Osmosis system or RO takes your softened water and goes a step further by removing the contaminates at the molecular level. It basically gives you as pure of water you can get outside of a laboratory setting.

The first step that takes place is that the softened (or city) water goes through a 5 micron filter. The human hair is approximately 80 microns in width. So this filter removes anything that is 1/16th the size of a human hair or larger. It is basically a pre-wash on the water.

The water then goes through a .0003 micron membrane. The holes in this part are so small that they can’t be seen without the aid of a microscope. This removes the contaminates in the water at the molecular level. Basically it is like shoving water through an egg shell.

The water then goes though a carbon filter which removes any remaining odor or objectionable taste from the water. Then it goes into a separate storage tank which keeps the purified water from the regular water supply and from there it goes to a separate faucet on your sink and to an ice maker if you have one.

There are really 3 major differences between one reverse osmosis system an another:

The first is the quality of water they produce. The National Sanitation Foundation which is a not for profit organization that tests and verifies claims within the water treatment industry, says that in order to call it a reverse osmosis system, the system has to provide a minimum of a 70% rejection rate. What this means is that it has to take out at least 70% of the stuff in the water. If you have 100 ppm of total dissolved solids in your water prior to the RO then you can only have 30 ppm after.

Kinetico, by the way, says that is not good enough. They guarantee a minimum of a 90% rejection rate and I usually see 95 to 98%. What’s more, Kinetico tests every reverse osmosis membrane made to make sure that it meets this criteria. They do not spot check at all.

The second difference is how often you have to change the pre & post filters of the systems. Most systems tell you in the owner’s manuals to change the filters once every 6 months or once per year depending on the quality of the system. You change them both at the same time and cost is going to be any where between $30 & $75 again depending on the system. Kinetico says that doesn’t make any sense. They say a family of 4 is likely to drink more water than a family of 2 so what they do is meter the water used. When a family uses 500 gallons of drinking water the system slows down then eventually shuts down. It will not allow you to drink through contaminated filters and you don’t have to worry about throwing money down the drain because you bought filters before you needed them. By the way, 500 gallons is the approximate amount used by a family of 4 each year. On the Kinetico, you have this dial called a “Purmometer which lets you know when you are getting close to needing a filter change so that you can pick up a set to have on hand. Also, when it comes to changing the filters Kinetico makes it extremely easy by making quick disconnect/reconnect filters. On most reverse osmosis systems when you change filters you have turn the water off, get a bucket, and be careful about touching the filters so that you don’t get the bacteria from your fingers on them. With Kinetico it is simply a ¼ twist off and a ¼ twist on. There is no mess, no bucket needed and since the filters housings are enclosed, there is no concern with bacteria from your hands. And the filters are color coded so there is no way to mess it up. They are extremely user friendly.

The 3rd and probably biggest difference between reverse osmosis systems is how often you have to change the membrane. Most systems owner’s manuals tell you to change the membrane every ½ to 3 years. The longest warranty I have ever seen on any other membrane other than Kinetico is 18 months. But Kinetico has a 10 year warranty on it. That means that it is guaranteed to give you a 90% or better rejection rate for a minimum of 10 years. Membranes cost any where from about $80 to $150. Kinetico’s are about $130.

The reason Kinetico last so much longer and gives such a better rejection rate is due to something Kinetico has a patent on called the “Everclean Rinse”. There are 2 major things that cause an RO membrane to go bad. The first is that the constantly have water pushing against the membrane which eventually forces the holes in it to get bigger and bigger allowing more contaminates through. The second is that when the holding tank fills with water and the system shuts down, the membrane sits surrounded by the same water it has been cleaning. This will allow for what is called TDS creep and also will eventually allow for a bacteria build up on the membrane.

What Kinetico does to eliminate these problems is first to shut down the pressure on the membrane so that it relaxes when the system is not producing water. The second is that when the membrane relaxes the system uses a small amount of RO water to rinse itself off. So now instead of sitting in high TDS water the membrane is relaxed and surrounded by high quality reverse osmosis water. The result is a much higher rejection rate for a much longer time. Does this make sense?

The Kinetico K-5 also is the only system that uses the patented Quick Flo tank. Most systems use a standard bladder tank to supply the water. This means that a 3 gallon tank actually only stores about 1 to ½ gallons of water because most of what is in the tank is air. Also the less water you have in the tank the less pressure you have. So as you drain the tank the pressure drops. This can cause problems with ice makers which require a certain amount of steady line pressure to prevent the line from freezing. The Kinetico Quick Flo tank actually uses household line pressure. The 3 gallon tank holds a true 2.75 gallons of water and you have the same amount of water pressure despite how much water is in the tank.

And of course you get the much nicer faucet with the Kinetico.

Now Kinetico also makes a system called a K-2. You still have the quick disconnect filters but they do not shut off. Also the warranty is only 2 years on the membrane because it does not have the “EverClean Rinse” on it. It is still a 7 year warranty on the rest of the system, but only 2 on the membrane. Also you do not have the Quick Flo tank or the nicer faucet.

Then we have the Microline RO. This system has a 1 year warranty on it including on the membrane. It does not have the quick disconnect filters, the nicer faucet or the Quick Flo tank.

Any questions?